Beilue: Volunteer EMS answers call for small towns

Shelene Jines sped to the scene two miles south of Gruver on Highway 136. Lights were flashing from ambulances and firetrucks when she arrived. Her heart was racing. Riki, her 19-year-old daughter, was in a wreck on this first Saturday night in January.

“There were ambulances everywhere,” she said. “I didn’t know where she was. But they were there waiting for me. They were telling me that she’s OK, she’s OK. I wasn’t, but she was. It was so comforting to see so many there.”

Riki Jines’ Toyota Corolla had hit a dead cow in the middle of the highway. Shannon Lane, who hit the animal just minutes before, flashed her lights to warn Jines, who was traveling in the other direction. But it was too late.

Her car went airborne after hitting the cow. The vehicle landed on the passenger side, and rolled on the hood before skidding to a stop. A seat belt likely prevented Jines from going into the windshield. She had cuts on a hand and an elbow and a mild concussion.

But when the call went out through the Hansford County Sheriff’s Department about 7:45 that night, Gruver’s emergency responders couldn’t judge the seriousness. They just went. Most were home that night, but wherever they were, they came together quickly on a dark stretch of highway.

“We don’t have a non-call schedule,” said paramedic Curt Fitzgearld. “That’s not us. If a call needs two or three people, it’s nothing to see all eight.”

Eight paramedics and 13 firefighters are Gruver’s emergency management team. Nearly all were at the wreck that night.

“Not all of those guys had to be there. Not every single woman was on call,” Shelene Jines said. “If they weren’t there, they were out of town. Oh my gosh, there had to be 20. They all weren’t required to be there, but they were.”

It was there at the scene that it hit Jines. Her daughter had been a passenger in a truck in a fatal wreck outside Gruver three years before. On Jan. 5, she saw the same faces, the same concern, the same quick response again. It became personal. They were there — for her child.

“They were there to take care of my kid,” she said, “and as a parent, you can’t ask for anything more. When it’s you that’s affected, at a very scary time, it’s reassuring. They did it on their own, without pay, without asking for anything in return.

“They did it because they loved my kid. That’s overwhelming. I don’t know how to put it into words. You can tell by the look on their faces. They were there for her.”

Yes, this was in Gruver, but it’s also in Panhandle, Shamrock, Claude, Vega and a number of other small towns. Volunteer firefighters and medical response teams are an essential fabric of small communities, a crucial but often overlooked lifeline in rural towns without paid services and medical facilities. Without them, it would be bleak.

“People would die, and houses would burn to the ground,” said Janet Williams, office manager for Texas Department of Transportation and a licensed paramedic for seven years.

In Gruver (population 1,200), 80 miles north of Amarillo, they are welders, ranchers, church secretaries and farmers. They spend hours in training. In a 700-square-mile radius, they could make six runs in a week, or six in a month.

Volunteers have a hard time expressing why they give of their time and hone emergency skills. It’s just part of who they are, to fill a critical need, to know if someone didn’t step up, who would?

There’s no money, often no admiration, but plenty of stress and concern. Why do so? To help a neighbor, to make a difference.

“We don’t expect a parade. We don’t even expect a thank you,” said Fitzgearld, who works at TransCanada ANR Pipeline and has been a Gruver paramedic for 23 years. “It’s nice later when you see someone in the grocery store and they smile at you. That’s good enough.”

In small communities, it’s nearly always personal. Rarely is the one at the wreck, at the farm accident, or the one felled by a heart attack, a stranger. Nearly always it’s someone they know, often know well.

These emergency volunteers’ worth is seen clearly through a parent in a most basic and uplifting way.

“It’s definitely a calling,” Jines said. “You can’t do that unless it’s your calling. Of course, we take it for granted. No one can understand until they see it, and it’s your child they’re helping.”

Jon Mark Beilue is a Globe-News columnist. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or 806-345-3318. His blog appears on amarillo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jonmarkbeilue.

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Yes, emergency workers definitely have a calling on their lives in order to perform the tasks they are called upon to do at any moment of any day. Accidents, illnesses, and other life happenings are no respecter of their schedules and time.

Kudos to all of those who sacrifice their own personal comforts and emotions to tend to those of us who have needed them or might need them sometime in the future. The results are not always as positive as the story above (and thank God there was a good outcome), but many times they are called on to deal with pain, suffering, and loss.

Thanks for sharing your story, Ms Jines, and reminding us of the men and women who work so diligently to respond in a professional, personal, and emotional way. Thank you, Mr. Beilue, for telling it so well. Fortunately this particular call for help had a happy ending. When EMS workers are called for duty, they have no idea what might be waiting on them as was the case in yesterday's terrible tragedy near Amarillo. God bless them all.

Jon Mark once again you have showed the love and concern from the people in Gruver! Thank you so much for writing such a great story! Over the last 2 years you have written about weddings and deaths that have occurred to family and friends of mine and when you write it is the TRUTH! Thank you so much. Thank you also to the EMTs and the ambulance people of GRUVER! We thank you so much for all you do and it is usually not recognized! Shame on us! Thanks you again!